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SNR Group
The Shin-Nippon Railways Group (more commonly referred to as the SNR Group) is a Japanese multinational public transport group. History Beginnings Shin-Nippon Railways was established on April 14, 2009 by Ryota Fukui, a former employee of Odakyu Electric Railway Co, Ltd. It was conceived with the intention of breaking the Japan Railways (JR) Group's monopoly on high-speed "Shinkansen" superexpress services in the country, as well as becoming the second national-level operator of other public transport services in the country. Shin-Nippon Railways ran its first ever Shinkansen service at 11:00am JST on April 29, 2011, coinciding with the start of the Golden Week holiday period. Its first service was a limited-stop "Hikari" service between Tokyo and Osaka on the pre-existing Tokaido Shinkansen line, using E2 Series trains. Growth Throughout 2011, the company continued to expand its scope of operations. SNR would extend some of its Tokyo-Osaka services to Kobe via the Sanyo Shinkansen in June, and commenced services through to Hiroshima in December. In 2012, the company acquired several new Shinkansen trains for use on its services. They were introduced to services on the Nagoya-Kobe section of their service line in March that year. In March that year, the company commenced services on commuter lines within Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, and started running express services on the Tohoku, Akita and Yamagata Shinkansen lines. In 2013, the company started running express services on Shikoku's Yosan and Dosan lines, with connections to their Shinkansen services via the Seto-Ohashi line. In 2014, SNR extended its westward Shinkansen services to Kumamoto. In October that year, the company obtained another shipment of new trains, this time a set of Bombardier Zefiro 300s. In 2015, the company announced that it would operate services outside of Japan for the first time, doing so by announcing its intention to operate high-speed rail services in North America, and that it had acquired 600 trains to do so with. It also started operating on the newly-opened Hokkaido Shinkansen line, extended its Shinkansen services in Kyushu to Kagoshima, and began services on the Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen lines. Innumerable other services on other lines across the country commenced throughout 2015. The company refurbished its Shinkansen units to higher standards comparable to or higher than those of the first-class "green cars" of JR and other express train operators across 2016. This increase in comfort came at no increase in the regular ticket price, as evidenced by SNR's advertising slogan at the time - "First-class comfort, Economy-class price". Service frequencies were also altered to provide more trains throughout the operating day. In March 2017, SNR expanded into the field of bus transport through the establishment of a transit bus service in San Diego, California. Expansion In November 2017, SNR launched services through the newly-constructed Japan-Korea Friendship Tunnel, which SNR was involved in the planning of. Branded as the "Hankoku Shinkansen", the service runs from Hakata Station in Fukuoka, and terminates in Seoul, Korea after running through the cities of Saga, Tsushima, Busan, Ulsan, Daegu and Daejeon. In December 2017, the company introduced the "Animal Crossing VillageLink" brand for special services between downtown San Diego and the then-newly-opened San Diego Adventure theme park and resort's Animal Crossing-themed village house accomodation area (one of many at the resort). In January 2018, SNR commenced its North American HSR services. It would also commence operating bus services in the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The following month, in February, it would acquire FirstGroup, one of the main transport companies of the British Isles, and take control of several local bus operations and train services in the region in the process. In March 2018, SNR's operations expanded exponentially at a rate never before seen in the company's history. SNR was appointed as the official transport company of Six Flags Dallas Resort, and announced the establishment of several new bus routes throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area under the SNR, First and AC VillageLink brands to connect the resort to major metropolitan areas. Also that month, First would recommence bus services in Edinburgh and the Lothians after previous withdrawal from the area in mid-2016. Municipal operator Lothian would sell its East Coast Buses division to SNR soon after. It was reported that some of the new buses ordered by SNR Bus Edinburgh were being delivered to depots in VillageLink livery, despite reports from the launch of the brand claiming that it was a one-off for certain services in their San Diego service area. SNR intends to launch several new bus services under the First brand in Japan by May 2018. Areas and cities currently under consideration for services are Yokohama, Wakayama, Saitama, outer suburbs of Tokyo, Gunma, Kansai, Shikoku, Chugoku, Fukuoka, Kumamoto Prefecture and Sendai. First is touting that their services will have "the first ever double-decker buses in regular service in Japan" - until then, double-deckers were largely confined to city sightseeing and long-distance coach services. SNR is also in the process of overseeing the construction of the Sakhalin Shinkansen, which will link Sapporo to the city of Toyohara in Sakhalin Prefecture, a former Russian oblast. Current operations The SNR Group currently oversees the following public transport operations: Shin-Nippon Railways Japan and East Asia * SNR North (Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita and Iwate Prefectures) * SNR East (Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima, Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures, Kanto region) * SNR Chubu (Gifu, Niigata, Ishikawa, Toyama and Nagano Prefectures) * SNR Central (Aichi Prefecture, Kansai & Shikoku regions) * SNR Chugoku (Chugoku region) * SNR West (Kyushu region, Korea) United Kingdom * Great Western Railway * Heathrow Connect * Hull Trains * SNR TransPennine Express North America * SNR Express America (branded simply as "SNR") SNR Bus * SNR Bus San Diego * SNR Bus Edinburgh * SNR Bus Dallas * Animal Crossing VillageLink First Bus * First Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, West Lothian, Aberdeen) * First Midland Bluebird * First England & Wales (numerous operating regions) * SNR First Japan